Travel Blogs from Baishan

We took a 90 minute internal flight to Mt Paekdu, (2750m) the highest mountain in Korea, on a Russian built propeller plane. We drove to the parking lot where we hiked up Mt Paekdu, some went straight up but I went up the road, longer but gentler incline a few got a lift up by the bus. I reached the top just as others were starting the decent. From the top there was magnificent views of Lake Chon the world's ...

... snowmobiles from going to the top. Which for me was the whole point. But I figured that I was there so I might as well try the mid-mountain trails. But after a few "runs" I determined that there is no foreseeable reason for any serious skier to go the to mid-mountain.

Skiing down is like riding on a cat track. The whole way. The so called "trails" are pretty much the same roads that the snowmobiles use to take you up. Flat and boring. I did try ...

Every year millions of people ski for the first time in China. It is a rapidly growing industry. But most of the resorts here are not worth first, let alone a second look. At least that's what my take has been. And it just so happens the place that seemed to have the best mountain for skiing, Changbaishan, just had a massive international ski resort built there. Now I say there, but what I mean is near there at another much smaller ...

... is not turned on until a specific date. So it wasn’t quite the cosy comfortable room I planned to spent part of my trip huddled up in. But it was cheap and available, so I paid my $30 a night plus $6 a night for the dorm and figured I’d just spent the money I saved on hot drinks and sightseeing.

Then I went to my room, ait my leftover subway sandwich from the airport, watched tv on my laptop and pretended I wasn't in China. Not a bad start to my ...

I booked my trip to the North side of Changbaishan mountain through the hostel. For 10 quai they served a Korean and Chinese style breakfast of rice porridge, hard boiled eggs, plain steam buns, kimchi, tofu, and a chickpeas and vegetables dish. Then we loaded into a shuttle bus to head to the park entrance. The way was through a beautiful forest, where the leaves were changing colour so I caught glimpses of red, orange and ...